First Impressions
by alexandriak1124
Summary: 'These are the slums of the heart'-John MacDonald. First impressions are a couple of different things: important, confusing, and wrong. Fall into a Secret Wonderland with Collins, and her strange new friend, and discover the imagination in every day life.
1. The Color

_Disclosure: I realize, at first that this does not seem like it is a writing of Alice in Wonderland. Stick around though, and you'll see the connection. In the words of King, let us say that sometimes murderers help old ladies cross the street. Keep reading, see who's the murderer, and who's the old lady in this scenario. We all know first impressions are confusing, seductive, and entirely false. -love&faith, alexandria._

**Chapter 1 :The Color.**

It was breath taking, but in a dangerous way. It was beautiful, but the circumstances made it ugly. It was captivating, but it was clear she needed to get out of there. Yet, she stood staring at the radiant color as it clashed with this winter world. She was frozen in place, because in Sebastian Falls where most of the year was entirely white with snow and ice, red blood was a delicacy.

Suddenly she was drawn out of her trance by a fuzzy voice. "You realize you could be charged of tampering with evidence and disturbing the scene of an accident?"

She turned toward the voice ready to defend herself entirely. "I have no idea what you're thinking but I did nothi-" the face she saw was not expected. He was young, her age probably. Most of all he was intense. The flirty eyes, the charming smile, and the attractive clothes gave her a sick familiarity.

"Darling Collins, where did you put the body?" He knew her name. This stranger, wearing a face with a seductive secret knew her name.

"Do we know each other?" She asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He flashed a smile and moved towards her, stepping over the blood she had just walked away from and stood in front of the tree she was taking shelter behind. Once, when she was young, her father taught her that if a man she did not know struck up a conversation with her, she was to run. Fast. She bounced on her feet contemplating the thought, her keys in her pocket jingling. It was a 30 minute walk to where she was from the gravel lot, so less than a 10 minute run back to her car. She wasn't one of the dumb blondes in a scary movie that trips over the branches or struggles with her keys. She was smart. Smarter than most.

"I would like to know in fact. And, you might want to know something as well. If you would look carefully I think you could figure out that the blood there is of an animal not a human." She paused as he turned around and looked at the wide patch of red again. He faced her and she began. "You might also find it interesting that there is a set of bloody shoe prints heading west. We are at the south end of the clearing, and there is no color on the bottom of my shoes." He carefully looked at her shoes and smirked.

"Sweetheart, here is what YOU should know. Look at the blood. Its obviously from a human. See, us crime freaks keep swabs in our pocket." He pulled out a long looking Q-Tip, and dipped it in the blood. Collins looked around. Now was the perfect time, she turned on her foot. "Wait, look here." Her head turned back to his voice. He held a small bottle and dripped something on the Q-Tip. It turned blue.

"If that was real blood wouldn't it stay red?" Wait, why did she even care. Why was she talking to a stranger in the freezing cold. Why was he here, why was she?

"Actually, it wouldn't. The antigens in the blood react to the chemicals in the drop. So... it turns blue." He blushed, the regained his composure. "You should also know that those footprints look very defined and easy to follow. I know how curious you are... go with me." Why was the offer so tempting?

Collins was exhausted from this conversation. Her eyes felt iced over, her fingers were going purple underneath her gloves, and her jeans felt like they were never going to thaw. "I think you have the wrong girl, I was just talking a walk through the woods. I don't have any idea how that blood got there but it was probably a hunting accident." She stood a second longer, and waited for his reaction but she didn't know why. He extended his hand and she eyed it. She looked at him, looked at the patch of blood, the red footprints, and back to him. He was breathtaking, but in a dangerous way. He was beautiful, but the circumstances made him ugly. He was captivating, and it was clear she needed to get out of here.

Collins placed her hand in is, with a confidence that seemed to appear from thin, frozen air.


	2. A Cold and Dark Place

Prep schools had bad names most of the time. They really weren't _that_ bad, she reminded herself. What they did do though, was instill a bitterness in Collins. What was she doing out here anyway in this cold, dark place? Then the memories came back to her...

Worthington Preparatory School for Girls, day one. Collins Wolf was a freshman with cute sweat pants and a side braid. She smiled up at the ivy covered dorm building, her braces flashed off the sun, then glared off her glasses and shined her driver in the eyes. When her mother couldn't fit her chubby daughter into debutant dresses and inner circles of the elite, she shipped her to a boarding school in northern New York, on the outskirts of a small town called Sebastian Falls. The driver of the car got out her strawberries and apples suitcase from the trunk, before she could say thanks he had pulled away. The first thing they did was give her a room in an abandoned back building, with a sorry there are no double rooms open you can stay in the singles hall. Then they took away her suitcase. No personal clothes, magazines, glitter makeup, or strawberry shampoo for you young lady. On the first night she found out there were 9 other girls on her hall. They never came out of their rooms except for mandatory times. She was completely alone. But, at midnight that first night, after she gave up fully closing her window from the rain, one of them knocked on her door an-

"So," the stranger began as he thankfully interrupted her memories "what are you doing out here?"

She turned the question over, questioning how much she could reveal. "I guess I'm just sick of the New Year jitters. I wanted to go for a walk on my own"

He looked as if this pleased him, which scared her. "It looks as if you have some of your own." He whispered. She let her hand ease out of his and stuffed it back in her warm pea-coat. The bloody footprints were far too literal. It looked as if whoever had stepped in blood, had taken off his shoes to run, yet in the process got blood on his feet anywa-

"Where do you think he put his shoes?" He asked.

She stared at him. "Why would you ask that? It's hard to see anyway we don't know what happened." The sun sunk behind the hills, and it was a dark twilight.

He threw his head back in a charismatic laugh. " Oh, c'mon, I know you've already put the pieces together. It looks like our killer, after walking a distance took off his shoes to run and some how managed to blood on his feet anyway."

Collins decided to ignore the fact that it felt as if he had just read her very thoughts. "We don't know if he's a killer or not." As the stranger opened his mouth to say something clever she was sure, she held her index finger up. "If he was a killer, where's the body from the blood pool? Do you see drag marks? No. It is most likely we're on search for a victim. The blood drops that the shoe prints can't account for is probably from a gaping wound. Most likely in the stomach area. Or upper thigh." She turned thoughts over in her head as things began to click. "The victim started to walk away, because the attacker backed off. He started to walk on an open path, clutching his wound, when he heard footsteps, and felt his attacker was back for him." Ha! Collins thought. Look who's added things together now! Then, she added up her own logic... The attacker would probably have gone after his victim, unless an unknown party approached the scene unexpectedly...

"What an interesting story Collins." The stranger said, approaching Collins.

She backed away, opening her mouth to form a full scream. The stranger began to raise his arms. Just as Collins began to notice she had caught her foot on a branch and was falling backwards into a dark opening his hands grabbed her shoulders and caught her. She let the breath escape her body. Two seconds and she would have been lost to this world, with no care from anyone. "My gosh what is this?" She asked looking down into the dark valley like structure.

"Let's find out." He extended a hand and she eyed it, like before. Collins placed her hand in is, with a confidence that seemed to appear from thin, frozen air. He looked at her, then they jumped.


End file.
